Judge dismisses Wendell Berry’s lawsuit against UK, but says controversial mural must stay

The controversial mural at the center of a lawsuit between the University of Kentucky and Wendell Berry must be maintained and cannot be removed, according to a court order filed Monday that also dismissed the lawsuit.

The ruling comes after a years-long debate between students, administration and Berry over what should happen to the mural, which depicts Black workers — possibly slaves — planting tobacco and a Native American person wielding a tomahawk.

Berry and his wife, Tanya, filed the lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court in 2020 to halt the removal of the mural. Tanya is the niece of the mural’s artist, Ann Rice O’Hanlon.

Judge Thomas Wingate granted UK’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the Berrys “lack standing to prosecute this action.” But since removal of the mural would “result in its destruction as it is a fresco — painted on the plaster itself — the Court holds that (UK) shall continue to maintain the status quo of the O’Hanlon Mural.”

“The O’Hanlon Mural does not glorify the abhorrent practice of slavery or the taking of Native American territory. But rather is a concise depiction of what Ms. O’Hanlon was instructed to create — a history of Kentucky from 1792 through the 1920s,” Wingate wrote. “The removal of the O’Hanlon Mural would be an insult to the Commonwealth and particularly the Commonwealth’s black and brown citizens.”

In 2022, UK President Eli Capilouto announced the university planned to remove and relocate the mural, and transform Memorial Hall into a student-centered space on campus.

“We have stated that the university’s intent is to maintain and move the mural. That continues to be our position. We are pleased that the Judge dismissed the case,” UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said Monday.

When contacted by the Herald-Leader Monday, Tanya Berry said she hadn’t yet read the decision from Wingate, but keeping the mural in place was “what we wanted.”

“We’re delighted that the fresco will stay in place, because it would destroy it to take it down,” Tanya Berry said. “It is a depiction of the history of the area, which is what she was doing, and it’s an accurate depiction of the way it was. It’s not a slam on anybody.”

The mural’s history at UK

The O’Hanlon mural has been the topic of controversy, protests and studies at UK for many years, with the Student Government Association passing a resolution calling for its removal in 2006.

Capilouto has reiterated plans to remove the mural several times, most recently in 2020 following the death of George Floyd and nationwide social justice protests, and again in 2022, after determining that the mural was structurally able to be moved. Black student groups had previously demanded the removal of the mural, which was originally created in 1934.

Following calls for its removal, the mural has been covered multiple times with a sheet.

In 2017, a plaque which mentions the historical context of the mural was added and the sheet was removed. In early 2018, artist Karyn Olivier created a work of art in the building titled “Witness,” designed to further contextualize the mural. Though Olivier was not part of the lawsuit, she made a statement in 2020 saying the mural should remain, and the university’s decision to remove it “renders my work Witness blind and mute.”

But the mural was covered again by a sheet after protests in which students — calling for more on-campus opportunities for Black students and the removal of the mural — occupied the main campus administrative building for a night in April 2019. UK stopped holding classes in Memorial Hall in 2019.